Yeah, I really don't get bands that go to MDF but then don't tour the States after. You already did all the hard stuff by just getting here!

Pretty sure lots of bands sign contracts with the MDF promoters that say that they're not allowed to piggyback a tour on top of the fest. You'll notice how many of the really cool bands are here for an "Exclusive U.S. (or North American) Performance!". Having exclusives like that makes the fest more attractive to people who might otherwise just stay at home and wait for those bands to tour through their towns.

Kind of a shitty move, but then again the MDF people pay for the flights, accommodation, help bands get their shit together visa-wise to be able to come here, etc. so I can't really fault them too much for wanting these kinds of exclusive contracts.

There's going to be a mass exodus down the street for people such as myself leaving Edison Lot after the headliners to squeeze into Ram's Head. I'm hoping I can catch the end of Enthroned and Hooded Menace. And Dark Angel and Bolzer at the same time is a gut-punch.

Yeah, that is too unfortunate they have to do that. I will probably be skipping Dark Angel for War Master/Bolzer, after looking at that list I think they should have moved some of the black bands to Rams Head, as it looks like all the good ones will be playing in the scorching sun.

Yeah, kinda lame all the cool black metal are getting daytime outdoor sets. No real set time clashing issues for me Friday and Sunday, but Saturday kind of sucks. I don't care so much about Dark Angel, but Unleashed overlapping with War Master and Bolzer...lame!

Saturday is the only real conflict. Everyone on the facebook thing is bitching about that Saturday night decision. It was bound to happen. I think I'll just have to leave Unleashed early, but what are you gonna do? Just concentrate on how much of a blast Saturday night at Rams head is going to be. Also they said this about the black metal: "We have about 2 hours of darkness at the Edison Lot and our request for more darkness was denied. However, take comfort in knowing that Stage "B" will not be in sunlight, which is why black metal bands were scheduled there in the first place. We are generally ahead of the game." So it's black metal in the shade haha, anything is better than that train wreck of a fucking tent idea from last year. I was so happy to finally see Bolt Thrower, and it was what, 40 minutes? That hurt.

I noticed all the complaining, too, but hey, Dark Angel followed up by Asphyx? I'm a happy camper. And Ruins of Beverast made into onto Stage A, in the sun. Oh well, I couldn't care less, I'm just excited to see them. One more thing: Candlemass and My Dying Bride back-to-back? That's going to be massive.

Hmm, actually I might skip out on Saturday Edison Lot altogether. There are bands I wouldn't mind seeing but the two I was most excited about are God Macabre and Unleashed and even those are kind of b-list swedeath for me so not something I'd kill people to be able to see, and the overlap with great stuff at Ram's Head that day kind of takes Unleashed out of the equation a bit.

Of course, if someone wants to pay for my tickets, I'll be there that day

May 23rd after 2pm is going to be the greatest seven hours of my life. I literally cannot imagine a more preferable lineup of bands in the order they are in than the bands that are playing in the Edison lot that day.

I've got my ticket and my transportation all lined up, the only thing I'm still lacking is accommodation. If any of you crazy folks here would be willing to split a room or otherwise provide such a thing for the weekend shoot me a PM- I'm not very scary looking and i don't take up that much space when I sleep. Just give me a spot on the floor if you have to, I can pass out pretty much anywhere.

Keep an eye on the Baltimore hostel - they might be fully booked right now, but if someone drops their reservations you might be able to snag a spot. Perfect fit if you're just looking for a place to sleep.

Lots of bands to see next weekend! I'll most likely be sticking to Edison and Ram's Head, but right off the bat I noticed Nightbitch, and I'd like to see them... Pity Triptkyon had to drop (I wouldn't have been seeing them anyway), but the given the circumstances it's totally understandable.

I don't know much of the lineup myself, save for Myopic-- progressive sludge/black metal, the Oath-- black metal, Condemn the Infected-- Death metal, and my band Swamphög-- sludge influenced by first wave black metal, traditional metal and garage punk.

Just got back from it, having left a bit early. It was a great weekend. Overall, the Edison lot worked out really well, with few issues that I was aware of compared to last year. The new vendor village, food / drink and stage layouts were also really cool, making it a lot easier to grab something to eat or shop around while bands played. Security was mostly pretty chill, no incidents of chokeslams that I'm aware of, and one of them was even crowdsurfing during At the Gates.

The split between Edison Lot and Ram's Head worked out better than I expected, as Edison was only a very short distance away from the Sonar. And due to the cancellations / schedule changes, I didn't have to contend with any overlap in the bands I wanted to see.

Vendors were pretty solid, ended up buying a lot of CDs and records, plus a handful of shirts. Was surprised not to see many last day deals, as I usually see a number of sellers doing so by the end of the festival (Deathgasm lowered their CD prices from $8 to $5, and all LPs / shirts were $10, for instance).

Highlights of the show were At the Gates, Cancer, Asphyx, Nocturnus, Necros Christos, Bolzer, Entrails, War Master, Sacrifice and Pseudogod. I didn't catch their entire sets, but Incantation, Immolation, God Macabre and Pungent Stench were all pretty rad too. Tomas Lindberg, Ross Dolan and John McEntee were hanging out for the Asphyx show at Ram's Head, which was pretty cool.

Didn't catch any of the Deathscape shows over at the Sonar (or any of the shows at the Sidebar or at the Soundstage), but every time I walked by Deathscape / the Sidebar, the bands playing sounded pretty good. Just didn't have time to check them out. The drama surrounding the Deathscape stuff was kind of amusing though.

Overall, a good weekend, lots of great music, lots of money spent, but I'm glad to be home, sitting on my couch.

I got back a few hours ago myself after a long drive home. Had a blast and hope to return next year!

VoidOfEternity, I don't have experience from prior years but I agree with you on the layout, it worked great. Although, merch tents were packed pretty closely together, making it difficult to browse, but I just went for the music so it didn't bother me. Ended up buying the black MDF shirt with the circular logo on it and a Ruins of Beverast shirt. And the security was great! The same guy crowdsurfed during Dark Angel; always cool to see the staff enjoying themselves. I did notice that the security at the entrance was pretty lax the first day but tightened up after that, and even then they weren't all on the same page.

I only saw bands at Edison and Ram's Head likewise. It's unfortunate that Aeturnus and Mitochondrion had to cancel, but on the bright side, I got to see Bolzer on Friday and took the time during Diocletian's second set to pack up before seeing Immolation and then leave Baltimore. Everything worked out.

As far as highlights though? Too many! Friday was the black metal day; Mgla, Ruins of Beverast, and Taake were phenomenal, and Enthroned was good but I think they could've done with a shorter set. At the Gates and Incantation were great closers, of course. Saturday had more thrash; Tankard, Sacrifice, and Dark Angel all killed it. Sarke had a surprisingly good set. Kind of surreal to see Nocturno Culto on stage, as silly as that sounds. And people freaked when they played Too Old, Too Cold. Now that was fun! Asphyx closing that night had to be my favorite performance at Ram's Head. That was my first time seeing them and I had my ass handed to me. Then on Sunday there was an extra helping of doom to wind things down. Windhand put on the a good show to start off the afternoon, but overall the day was lackluster (at least for me it was, besides Inquisition) until Candlemass and My Dying Bride played one after the other. I wasn't sure how MDB would hold up after Candlemass' fantastic performance, but they were better than I could have hoped for. I wasn't into Unleashed or Agalloch as much as their respective follow-ups, so I think Sunday had the better closers while having a comparatively boring afternoon. And I probably don't have to mention that Immolation played a great set later that night too.

Now I've got to do some catching up on lost sleep.

_________________

BaloroftheEvilEye wrote:

Every thread is secretly a Manowar thread.

Last edited by Mysticaloldbard on Mon May 26, 2014 5:56 pm, edited 1 time in total.

Other than the fact that my shitty car broke and I had to get towed back to my house from Baltimore last night, I had a blast all weekend. The new venue situation is vastly superior to last year's setup and definitely competes really well with the old Sonar setup. Ram's Head is definitely a hell of a lot nicer than Sonar ever was, but the walk from Edison Lot to Ram's Head is kind of lame (not the distance, but the ~15 minutes or so hurts when you're trying not to miss anything) and Ram's Head selling out super fast is something of a bummer.

Here's my lengthy write-up of bands I saw:

Friday

Edison Lot

Castevet: Crap band, didn't care. Scoped out the new venue grounds for a while instead.Mgla: Incredible. M was sounding extremely powerful. Loved the hoodies/masks and general stoic stage presence, which worked well with the huge menacing grooves. Worked surprisingly well in the full sunlight. I wish the guitars had been a bit louder as the mix was heavy on bass, drums and vocals, but it still sounded pretty good. Excellent performance though.The Ruins of Beverast: Mixed feelings on this. I was pretty pumped to see this band, but I think a lot of their music just sort of gets lost in translation in the live environment. Most of it just felt sort of lacking, but then they closed with the monumental "I Raised this Stone as a Ghastly Memorial" which totally clicked and was awesome, largely redeeming their otherwise somewhat disappointing set.Necros Christos: Pretty darn good. Skipping all the interludes from the albums does a lot in changing the character of this band, since the pummeling grooves were emphasized a lot more. Kind of goofy outfits (the frontman was wearing some sort of Sumerian tunic thing and a headscarf while the rest of the band had like, less elaborate matching tunics) but they were good fun.Solstafir: Only listened to this band in the background, really. For some reason they were all wearing goofy cowboy hats (I guess they thought that was appropriate for America?). Very pretty stuff, more energetic than expected, but I just wasn't really feeling it in the full sun of the warm evening. Not bad at all though.Taake: Definitely one of the highlights of the fest. Hoest is an incredible frontman, shitloads of energy and enthusiasm. Crazy fuckin' pit, incredible sound, great song selection. Was completely wiped out by the end of their set. Incredible stuff and essentially a profound lesson in how to black metal properly. SEE THIS BAND!Cancer: Missed most of their set due to needing a breather/dinner. I always thought these guys were kind of C-list death metal anyway, so no huge loss. Benediction were better last year.Agalloch: Were Agalloch. I'd seen them several times before so just let them be background music to hanging out (I think they work much better at night in a small club than on a big stage in the evening). Didn't pay much attention to their set but they sounded good enough and I'm sure didn't disappoint people who were pumped to be seeing them.At the Gates: Played a few songs from later albums; I got bored and left to go to Ram's Head. Possibly a wet dream for people into melodeath but I wanted to hear older stuff.

Ram's Head

Bolzer: Mind-blowing. Those riiiiiifffts. The frontman was clearly very particular about their sound and it showed; absolutely gigantic sound for just two dudes. He ran his guitar into two separate guitar rigs and a bass rig. Those desperate, howling clean vocals were even more powerful live than on the EP. Another essential, don't-miss band. Hype = completely lived up to.Enthroned: Very boring. Basically a mix of bland norsecore with really sugary melodic sections that were nowhere near as good as the best Swedish or Finnish black metal bands with a penchant for catchy, hooky tremolo lines. Snooore.Incantation: Quite good. I was completely fuckin' wiped out by this point so I watched them sitting in the bleachers on the top level of Ram's Head. Pretty sure I actually fell asleep several times in my seat and woke up to find myself still headbanging. I wish I'd had more energy for them but they were really good stuff.

Machetazo: Not really huge on these guys, plus I'd seen them before, so again just let it be background music while I walked around/chatted with people. Sounded fine though.God Macabre: Sounded really, really good. Probably one of the better "old Swedeath band who hasn't played a show or done anything in 20 years but is now together again" performances I've ever seen. Cool Carnage cover, too. I was really kind of itching to get up close and maybe get some pit action but I wanted to save myself for marriage Asphyx. Many d-beats, much HM-2. \m/Nocturnus: I kind of feel the same way about their live show as I do about their albums: kind of interesting, but not really totally totally my thing, I guess. I'm not really completely huge on Florida DM in the first place. Mike Browning sounded kind of tired/bad and his mic kept cutting in and out, but otherwise they sounded good. I got a bit distracted also by some guys filming some nasty crusties making out in the crowd near me, though.Tankard: Wow, these guys fucking rule. Pretty sloppy but that only added to the fun. Lots of beer drinking, rubbing of beer guts on objects/people, pouring of beer into the crowds' and security guards' mouths, bringing of "beautiful ladies" from the crowd up to the stage to dance with them, etc. German people know how to party, I tell you what.Sacrifice: Skipped these guys to eat dinner. After Tankard no other thrash was going to do it for me, sorry.Sarke: NOCTURNO CULTO! I admit I've never really listened to these guys with any real depth, but they were cool live. The rest of the band didn't have much/any stage presence but ol' Ted was a riot with his massively overstated humbleness and lack of credibility as an "entertainer" as he put it. The music ripped, though, and they closed with a cover of "Too Old, Too Cold" that showed us exactly what the world is missing by not having Darkthrone do shows, ever.Unleashed: Gonna draw a lot of ire for this, I think, but these guys were about as underwhelming for me as their albums are. Just kind of pedestrian and dull. Left after two songs to see the far superior War Master at Ram's Head.

Ram's Head

War Master: Took a long, stupid route to get to the venue so I only saw roughly the second half of their set. Totally devastating, disgusting early Bolt Thrower worship with loads of crust all over it. Massive shit, cool band.Bolzer (second set!): For some reason they took goddamn forever to set their stuff up this time (looked like some sort of feedback issue with the bass amp?) and didn't really get to do a real soundcheck, so they started late and sounded worse than their first set, but of course they were really cool once again.Hooded Menace: Got right up to front row and stayed there starting with Bolzer, so I was glad to be right on the rail for these guys. I had seen them at MDF a few years ago but I had been super sleepy/wiped out so their set was just not on my wavelength, but this time around I was way into it. Huge lumbering grooves, quite excellent. Also the chick standing next to me was completely in love with the rhythm guitarist's stage presence so that was funny.Pungent Stench: "WE'RE BLACK FLAG AND WE PLAY SONGS BY PUNGENT STENCH!" Fucking DEVASTATING. Shirenc really picked some badass dudes to round out his lineup. They played "Shrunken and Mummified Bitch", "Happy Re-Birthday" and other excellent tunes, but unfortunately left out "Splatterday Night Fever" which is one of my favorites. Neck-wrecking insanity, perfect sound, shitloads of energy. SEE THIS BAND.Asphyx: Always amazing. Van Drunen is such a sexy motherfucker I tell you what. Plenty of hits, "Vermin", "Death the Brutal Way", "Deathhammer", "The Rack" and "Last One on Earth" plus others of course. Neck-wrecking. I also got Alwin's pick with the Asphyx logo and "Deathhammer" on it! \m/

Pseudogod: Nuclear Warcore. Pretty boring but not utterly awful. Still, I saw a band from Russia, so that's something?Wrathprayer: Blastbeats and totals deaths. No riffs, only darkness. Occult poser holocaust. Also blastbeats and bullshit. This silly trend can't go away quick enough.Inquisition: A bit worrying as Dagon's guitar was wayyyy too quiet at first, but the sound guy fixed this eventually. I was hoping for "Spiritual Plasma Evocation" but no dice. They closed on "Infinite Interstellar Genocide" though and their whole set totally ripped. Really good times, but I don't know if it quite matched the trance-inducing ritual of their indoor performance at MDF a few years ago.Soilent Green: Not really very good at all, IMO. Just sounded a bit weak, and I always thought this band wasn't really too great at shifting from Eyehategod sludge to spastic grind parts in a way that sounds fluid or natural. Wasn't feeling it, so left for dinner.Gorguts: Absolutely incredible band if total bullshit is your cup of tea. "Let's chop up a regular death metal song, rearrange it in random order, then put a bunch of obnoxious skronking with some asshole from Krallice on top of it!" Go back to Canada.Uncle Acid and the Deadbeats: To be completely fair I had never really listened to this band much before. They're pretty much Queens of the Stone Age, except with 100% of the modern alternative rock-isms excised from their sound. Big fuzzy occult rock with some Sabbath flavor for good measure. Neckbeards, here's a tip on getting women to sleep with you: stop being misogynist assholes, listen to this band and learn how to play guitar.Candlemass: Completely brilliant. Focused nearly entirely on old material, though they did play "Emperor of the Void". Mats Levin really has some pipes and put on a flawless vocal performance, largely doing great justice to the songs. The only misstep was that they closed on "Solitude" and had the crowd sing the "please let me die in solituuuuuuuuuuuude" line every single time except for once. I came here to hear you sing it, not some drunken louts! Still very very excellent.My Dying Bride: Kind of a mixed bag. Started out quite weak, really, with just kind of a thin sound and Aaron's clean vocals just sounding way off/weak. Definitely an "off night" kind of thing, I think. About halfway through the set they started shifting toward more old material and the quality definitely picked up, with "Turn Loose the Swans" being an obvious highlight. Strange how Aaron's harsh vocals sounded really good yet his cleans were kind of crap mostly. Still pretty neat though and I'm glad I got to see them.

Ram's Head

Ulcerate: It's incredibly impressive that three guys with such extreme musical autism and interest in death metal were able to find one another in a small country like New Zealand. Perhaps the identical shaved heads helped them identify one another. Anyway, though this band is more "interesting" than it is strictly "good", watching their performance was completely mesmerizing. That drummer is definitely not a human being, and the other two guys are no slouches either. If you like this band at all, go see them, or if you're really into technical wankery you won't come away with dry pants.Immolation: I've seen this band a whole bunch of times so having them close out the festival was sort of anti-climatic on a personal level, but really they were basically the perfect choice. The setlist favored newer material and Dawn of Possession while going light on that middle-era stuff (nothing from Here in After or Failures for Gods I don't think, only one each from Unholy Cult and Close to a World Below) but seeing this stuff live just reinforced how consistent the band and their sound has been. Ross Dolan and Bob Vigna are also super charismatic, with Ross being really personable, thanking everyone for coming out and making MDF great, thanking Ryan and Evan for their hard work in putting the festival together and praising their success with the big shift in venues, giving shout-outs to all the bands he was super stoked to see, etc. Just really good to end the fest with a "metalheads' metal band" like that.

Another excellent MDF. I don't know when I'll be able to make it again, so I'm glad I got to go to this one.

Taake - Fine black metal, they played loud and fast, appreciated that they didn't play the banjo song. A

Cancer - Acceptable death metal, sounded a bit wonk, no power behind the guitar. C+

Agalloch - Acceptable post black, not my cup of tea, but much more energetic than expected. C-

At The Gates - Acceptable death metal, kinda blended into the background for me. C

Nocturnus AD - Their music and performance is a complete blur to me but I recall enjoying it. B

Tankard - Fun thrash metal, very energetic and charismatic. One of the better pits for the mix of moshing, headbaning, surfing, and circling. No one activity predominated so you could measure your fun pretty well. A+

Sarke - Fine black metal, started slow but picked up steam nicely. Nocturno Culto was there for the vokills, a nice surprise. Had a climactic finish with a Darkthrone cover. A+

Unleashed - Fine black/death/thrash, sweet riffs, good speed, vocals could have used more push. A

Inquisition - Excellent black metal, perfect atmosphere and sound with amazing riffs, percussion, and vocals. The only flaw was that they played during the day and outside, whereas from experience their music is better inside and/or at night. A+

Soilent Green - Some kind of hardcore fusion. High quality for this style, did end up sticking around. C

Gorguts - Acceptable prog metal and fine death metal, the first part of their set was pretty boring as they played new material, the second half was their old death metal which was the most intense show of the fest. The bass was blasting so hard the racks were shaking and I thought I was going to throw up the whole time from the vibrations. One minor annoyance was that the frontman kept asking the crowd to move and shout. Asking for that instead of letting it happen organically is cheating. C- for the first half, A+ for the second.

Uncle Acid - Never really figured out what kind of band they were, seemed to be all over the place. Pretty dull overall with no power or presense, but sounded sufficiently metal in the background while I wandered around. D-

Candlemass - Excellent doom metal, the vokillist did a very good impression of the old guy. Played almost all old songs, including several from Ancient Dreams (tho not the title track). Got the crowd singing the words to Solitude. A+

My Dying Bride - ???, easilly and by far the worst band I saw here this year. Extremely lethargic and barely metal. I was shocked at how terrible their show was. Also, the singer wore a tie: lame. F-

Sarke performing a Darkthrone cover was bullshit, as was Candlemass cutting Bewitched in half right before the giant stomping section after the solos.

Cool seeing some of you scummy fucks around. If anyone passed by me selling tapes on the sidewalk, and didn't stop to say hello, and instead gave all your money to the Vendors inside basically all selling the same shit, well... pooey on you.

I liked the set up this year but it's nearly impossible to see everything with how close they were running bands. Soundchecks while other bands were playing was obnoxious and disrespectful, I felt. I'd much rather have some more overlap. It would have been impossible to get to Rams Head and back. You essentially have to dedicate your time to one set of stages. The one exception was Sidebar which had three of the best bands of the weekend: Casket, Wounded Giant and The Pilgrim. If you missed those free bands, you missed out on some of the best of the weekend imo.

Favs: Sacrifice, Candlemass, Wounded Giant, The Pilgrim, Dark Angel, Taake, Incantation, Sarke (until the cover), At The Gates (Who did play a bunch of old tracks two from Red In The Sky and two from With Fear.. no Neverwhere though so pooey again.), Zombie bbq, chill security (easy to beer up along the sidewalk), the crusty beer stand on the sidewalk. Getting into Rams Head for free Friday in time to see Incantation.

Worsts: The walk to Rams Head, The vegan hotdogs and the hot dog stall, Uncle Acid, Machetazo (does anyone even care about these guys?), the lack of Rams Head tickets available. Aeternus dropping because of US Embassy ineptness, not enough room for more people in Sidebar.

Overall, a fun year. Awesome seeing some of you there again, iamntbatman, John_sunlight... see you guys next year again!

Taake was EASILY the highlight of the fest for me. No question. Hoest was just theatrical enough that it was captivating but he didn't overdo it to the point where it was cheesy. Dark Angel fucking slayed and I popped my crowdsurfing cherry during their set, At the Gates was actually pretty incredible too for someone who isn't as big of a fan. They played a lot of older stuff, at least one song from every album, and they were on point the whole time. Wounded Giant was indeed one of the better bands there despite them being at the Sidebar; actually, that was a great venue pretty much any time I went there. The only outright disappointment I remember was how Uncle Acid's vocals sounded live, he basically just had this super mousey/nasally tone that didn't translate nearly as well as it does on record. Overall, though, great first fest, I hope to go next year, maybe I'll meet up with more of you crusty fucks than I did this time!

Sarke: NOCTURNO CULTO! I admit I've never really listened to these guys with any real depth, but they were cool live. The rest of the band didn't have much/any stage presence but ol' Ted was a riot with his massively overstated humbleness and lack of credibility as an "entertainer" as he put it. The music ripped, though, and they closed with a cover of "Too Old, Too Cold" that showed us exactly what the world is missing by not having Darkthrone do shows, ever.

Aww, man! When I saw Sarke in 2010 everyone was shrieking Darkthrone song requests in between songs but, alas, none were brought out. Nocturno's got such awesome stage presence. I remember he came out 15 minutes early by himself on stage, lit up a cigarette, cracked a beer, and just noodled around tuning his guitar and whatnot.

Great reviews, guys! I wanted to see Nightbitch at the Sidebar but opted to see Agalloch for the first time instead. I wasn't as familiar with the rest of the bands, besides Pilgrim, so I avoided the venue for the rest of the weekend. Poor choice!

Nocturno Culto didn't come out early from what I can remember, but most of the bands were on stage before their sets helping to prepare. The atmosphere was very relaxed.

Still recovering here from the long drive from Baltimore to Detroit here. I also had a wedding to attend in Richmond, VA on Saturday, and didn't get Ram's Head tix, so my experience was limited to Friday and Sunday at the Edison Lot. Still had an amazing time.

While watching Solstafir I look over to the left and think... hey that's pretty funny, that guy has a little stick figure hang man tattoo just like... oh shit. that's Hoest! So got to shake hands and thank him for coming to the US. I didn't want to bother him too much since he was trying to enjoy the show, but still was an honor to get to meet the guy.Also, Luc Lemay was selling Gorguts merch personally, so got to meet him as well. Ridiculously nice and cool guy.

Highlights for me:

Mgla was absolutely incredible. loved the black hoods and masks too.

Solstafir was new to me and I was astonished. I don't usually go for "post" stuff but they kept things driving and energetic. loved it.

Taake. Not much else to be said that hasn't been said above. They were amazing, though would have been better if it were darker out at the time.

At the Gates. 20 year old me was flipping out but the 34 year old me said "go to bed" 34 year old me won. They did sound really good though.

Inquisition were surprisingly good great atmosphere and driving black metal. Also would have been better without the bright sunny afternoon.

Uncle Acid started out really great for me, but after a while it seemed they started to drone on and on.

Gorguts. I'm an unapologetic fanboy and I absolutely loved their set. I was mostly surprised to see that it's actual people who make that music with vocal chords and instruments. I half expected them to just conduct a seance on stage and summon some lovecraftian cosmic monstrosity to play the songs for them.

Candlemass. They really tore it up. Great band, great energy, played lots of old stuff. They probably had the best sound mix of the bands I saw.

Definitely going back next year, and definitely making sure to get tix to the other venues because there was a lot of great stuff I was disappointed to have missed.